


Lightyears Away

by solaropposite



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Culture, Aliens, Original Character(s), Original Universe, Portals, Robots, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-07-01 16:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15777705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solaropposite/pseuds/solaropposite
Summary: In a distant galaxy, teleportation travel is the crux of the alien civilization. Neo and Helios are two of the very last employees working at Telhub, the oldest and biggest travel center in the galaxy.However, when an unfinished portal unexpectedly malfunctions, the two are accidentally teleported millions of lightyears away to a small, uncharted planet known as “Earth”. They soon learn they ended up traveling through the elaborate science project of a young college student named Rena Roswell.Soon after Helios and Neo’s unexpected arrival on Earth, signs of suspicious activity in their home galaxy are discovered. The three realize that it is imperative to find a way for Helios and Neo to get back to their home. But with Xenon, one of their spiteful coworkers, hunting the trio down and Rena's portal breaking during its first activation, no one knows how far they’ll get.





	1. Coworker Encounters

Telhub was more than a ship. More than a transportation facility. It was alive, it’s beating core constructed of immense electric systems buzzing and snapping as the masses of multicolored alien creatures hurriedly made their ways though it’s endless terminals. All of them were in search of the gate of the portal system that was supposed to take them to where they were supposed to be at the exact time they were supposed to be there. This was supposed to be Telhub’s purpose, fulfilled solely by Argon, the master computer who powered the entire facility, his leagues of anthropomorphic service robots, and a team of two very, very dedicated employees.

One of them was currently alone in a workshop, many floors below the central terminal. In the center of the bizarrely-organized space stood a green, lizard-like alien with short curved horns and a mane of cotton-candy-like pink hair. This strange, colorful alien was Neo, the last organic creature that Telhub employed. He had lived at Telhub his entire life, having been found abandoned there as a baby by two of the thousands of former employees, and he took much pride in the work he had done there. So much so that even after his adopted family moved on from Telhub to another planet, he chose to stay behind.

Currently his four jet-black eyes were intensely focused as he took a deep breath and slowly bent down to continue his work. He was repairing a rather large security camera screen, nothing too complicated. However he knew that the project’s completion would require the installation of a new Vigorite battery. Vigorite was a type of energy-generating stone and was used to power nearly every last machine in Neo’s galaxy as he knew it. Though not dangerous unless destabilized, Neo still took extra effort to ensure both his and the crystal’s safety. He began lifting the quarter-sized crystal with two tongs and was nearly successful in lowering it down into it’s port when suddenly the door was flung open and an animated voice called out:

“Neo! Hey Neo, I want to show you something!”

Neo jolted upwards in surprise, hitting his head on a hanging lamp in the process, and felt the crystal slip from his grasp and fall to the cluttered work table. Immediately he turned and saw a familiar frame in the doorway.

There stood Helios, a purple humanoid robot and another long-time Telhub employee. He and Neo had been assigned as partners decades ago and almost nothing had changed since then, aside from the fact that they had become romantic partners in that time as well. Currently his tube-like arms were outstretched and holding a piece of sketch paper that he seemed enthusiastic to display. However, upon seeing Neo’s reaction he shrunk a bit and asked

“Oh sorry, did I scare you?”

“No no, I’m good, I’m good.” Neo said in a strained voice as he grasped the part of his horns he had just bashed against the now-broken lamp. He felt around for where the crystal fell and placed it into a pocket on his belt.

“What did you have to show me?” He asked.

“This! A traveler just gave it to me. Isn’t it amazing?” Helios said, handing the paper to Neo.

Neo took the paper and saw that it was detailed with an incredibly impressive sketch of the interior of Telhub’s oldest terminal, one of the most crowded areas in the facility.

“Oh, that’s the main gate, isn’t it? Wow, did someone actually draw this? It's so realistic.”

“Yeah! They were from Benthos-9. They gave it to me because they thought the lighting didn't come out as they wanted it. I can't tell, it still looks amazing, don't you think?”

“Yeah, they even drew all the small souvenir stuff you have hanging around your desk. And it’s not like the lighting here is that great anyways.” Neo said, glancing back at the formerly functioning lamp hanging over his desk. 

“Hah, how would you know anything about the lighting in the main gates?” Helios teased. “Aside from repairing portals you never leave your workshop. You know we live in a teleportation center right? You’ve got access to travel the entire galaxy but you spend all your time in this deep dark studio surrounded by broken things.”

“Well if you’re not interested in this deep dark studio I’m sure there’s lots more interesting things happening back at your work station right now.” Neo replied playfully.

“True, Xenon’s probably up there already filing a thousand complaints to Argon about me being absent and how it’s your fault somehow. Guess I can’t blame you for sticking down here.” 

“Ugh, Xenon...” Neo said, with a tone of intense displeasure. “He just does all that because he hates that I’m head mechanic. And since we're partners I think he hates you by association, sorry.” Neo complained apologetically. “I dunno what he’s thinking, he’s only been doing his job for what, four or five decades, and he think’s more experienced than me!” 

Just as he finished his thought, the intercom crackled to life and a robotic voice announced:

“Attention! Worker 26693 station 4 in sublevel control room c, your presence is needed on terminal A!”

“Sounds like you’re getting called up again, want me to come with you?” Helios asked

“Yeah, but aren’t you technically still on your shift?”

“Yeah, technically. Come on, lets go.” Helios replied enthusiastically, already walking out the door.

The two then exited the workshop and boarded the elevator leading to gate 1. As they were going up, the hundreds of aliens making their way through the facility were visible through the elevator’s see-through energy walls. Neo glanced down at them, scanning for what might be the technicial issue that he had likely been called in to fix. He couldn’t detect any, and once the elevator had reached gate 1, Helios and Neo made their way through the crowd to a tiny, familiar office. 

This office belonged to Krypton, leader of the service department of Telhub and the voice who had spoken over the intercom. The door was small, unassuming, and surrounded by a variety of old, beaten-up travel safety posters. It certainly didn’t look like it would belong to one of the few beings who made sure Telhub remained functional. They attempted to knock but found that the door lifted up as soon as they approached. In the office they saw Krypton, a blue, humanoid robot with many floating appendages, all of which were currently occupied by papers and communication devices. Her face screen was glitching, a nervous tick she displayed often, as she was very often nervous, and she was so engulfed in her work that she did not look up as Helios and Neo entered. 

“Krypton, how’s it-” Helios began but was immediately interrupted by another robot blocking his way.

“What is your business with Kryp-ton?” It asked in a harsh monotone voice. The bipedal robot had a very simple blue form, and Helios recognized it as one of the Kryptonites, a group of non-sentient robot workers controlled by Krypton herself.

“Ah, we just got a notification that-“ Helios started but was cut off again as Krypton dropped everything she was working on and sprinted over.

“Oh no, s-sorry!” Krypton stammered as she deactivated the odd kryptonite. “I-I’ve been having problems with the Kryptonites all day, I t-think something’s messed up their programming. Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay, really. How’s it going?” Helios asked gently.

“Ah, not great. There’s been a lot of m-malfunctioning service hardware today. I think Radon’s AI files have been mixed in with mine, and you know how h-hostile his Radonite team can be.” She said, still stuttering but calming down a bit. “But of course Radon’s far too busy with his ‘security protocols’ to help me. Though that’s pretty typical these days. Plus a bunch of portals have been malfunctioning lately and none of us can figure out why. And by “us” I mean “me” because all Radon has been helping with is this big presentation for Argon on why his security robots need more lasers.”

“Is that why you called us up? We can help you with that.” Neo asked, attempting to cheer the stressed android up.

“Hm? Oh n-no, Xenon is the one who needs you. I’ll be fine here, probably.” She replied, projecting a blue translucent screen out in front of her and skimming through the notifications it displayed. “Xenon told me to n-notify you to meet him on boarding ramp 1Z. It's portal has a-apparently been down for a while now so you should probably bring your t-toolbox with you if you plan on making repairs.”

“My toolbox? Uh...” Neo mumbled to himself, silently cursing how often he made the mistake of leaving it behind.

“I’ve got you, here it is.” Helios said as he flipped open a piece of his chest plate and pulled out a bulky blue bag with the number 26693 stitched onto it.

“How did you know I was going to forget that?”

“We’ve been together for 99 years, I saw it coming.” He replied, smiling warmly.

Neo thanked him but was slightly concerned at how predictable his bad memory was becoming.

“I've never heard about any problems with 1Z before now. Why does Xenon always tell me this kind of thing so late?” Neo said with annoyance.

“Hate to be the bearer of bad n-news, guys. To be honest, I've never much liked working with Xenon either...” 

“Yeah, I mean if he really wanted to help me he'd stop hovering over me all the time. He gets frustrated way too easy!” Neo ranted

“And he's so sarcastic too... and angry... and mean. It's n-not great.”

“Well, we’d better get going if we want to get that over with. But hey, if you want we can come back and help you with this later.” Helios said, 

“Oh, that’d be great. Haha ha ha. Ha. I'm so glad I still have you two working for the service department because I seriously cannot remember the last time I was able to actually enjoy something that wasn't related to work or portals or all of these travelers constantly coming up to me and saying things and asking me where to go and where their terminal is and what time our departures are and whether or not I think that everything is working correctly or not and if I like working here because every day I ask myself that question too and every day I come closer to not knowing how to answer it! I mean, right?”

As the blue robot spoke her face began glitching more violently and her voice slowly ascended into a strained, high pitched tone.

“Oh... okay. So terminal 1Z then?” Neo said with no idea how to continue the conversation.

“Yep! Saaafe travels!” She said with a stiff, unnatural smile plastered on her face screen. 

Helios and Neo exited quickly, making their way down the long corridor leading to terminal 1Z. After a moment Helios said

“Do you... think she’ll be okay in there by herself?”

“I think so. Besides, what could we do? At the end of the day we’re probably just better off doing the work she assigns us. And we can come back later.”

“I guess you’re right.” Helios replied, though he still wasn’t fully convinced.

The pair continued down the massive corridor, now crowded with many colorful aliens carting luggage about and chattering endlessly. On their left was a vast wall covered in framed images of the Telhub crew members of the past. It served as a display celebrating the employee of the year for each year of Telhub’s 4 centuries of operation. However, Neo being the only non-robot still employed, his image comprised the majority of the later half-century. 

They soon were stopped again, this time by another robot who resembled Krypton slightly in composition but was far more bulky and had a purple tint.

“Hey you two. Where’re we heading today?” He said in his usual deep voice and self-centered affectation.

“Oh, hey there Radon, just going to, uh...” Neo began

“Boarding ramp 1Z.” Helios finished.

“Right, 1Z. I was called there by Krypton a few minutes ago.”

“Apparently Xenon wants to see us there.”

“1Z huh? Never heard of it! But then again, im usually only working in the real high security areas. Gotta be protecting this place and everything you know!”

“Okay... well, see you later then.” Neo said uncomfortably, again not knowing how to continue the conversation. 

“See you, I'm late for an appointment anyways. I'm displaying a prototype of a new gun attachment I designed to Argon. Here's my pitch, two words: Lasers and More of them.”

“Yeah, uh, good luck with that.”

They continued onward, with the crowd thinning out the further they ventured down the hall. This wasn’t surprising, as most of the portals at the furthest Z terminal were either rendered non-operational by years of extended use or left unfinished by the previous owner of Telhub.

“Hm, when’s the last time we were called to work on a portal all the way down here? None of this seems familiar...” Helios said. He then noticed that Neo still seemed slightly irritated and he asked him what was wrong.

“Eh, I don’t really like Radon. He’s worked here for the last 6 decades and he still refers to me as “the green one”. How hard is it to remember someone’s name when you have unlimited memory storage and five other sentient coworkers?” Neo ranted, feeling under appreciated.

“I understand, he’s not my favorite either. I can't believe Argon gave him a whole fleet of those Radonite robots to command. He’s not the most reasonable person, you know.”

“Yeah, someone should probably tell Radon that this is a transportation center and not a military platoon.”

Helios and Neo continued to walk and eventually passed one alien lounging on a bench, seemingly unconcerned with the action of the main gates. It was short, with teal skin and sharp, square features and was engulfed in working on a foreign looking computer. They likely had ventured this far to escape the constant noise and crowds of the central terminals so Helios and Neo didn’t bother to question them.

However, as soon as the two were out of earshot, the alien made the cataclysmic error of leaning against a trash can and accidentally tipping it over. It scrambled to pick the can up but saw that it was too late as three enormous Radonites in the area suddenly activated and surrounded the terrified alien. The alien, who was far smaller than it’s attackers, backed up terrified with its hands in the air. The Radonites prepared to apprehend the alien anyway and, realizing it’s chance to escape, the alien dashed down the hallway away from the scene with the three Radonites in pursuit.

“At least Krypton is nice.” Helios said, oblivious to what had just gone down behind him. “I just wish she wasn’t so stressed all the time, she doesn’t deserve it.”

“Yeah, and to be fair Radon is still a hundred times more bearable than Xenon...”

Suddenly, a smug voice from further in the darkness of the terminal replied  
“Maybe so, but I also outrank you vastly so I'd watch your mouth, technician.”


	2. Reactivated

“Ugh, what do you want Xenon?” Neo said as Xenon hovered down next to him from a nearby boarding platform.

“I want you to competently do the job we ask you to do, for once in your life.” Xenon snapped.

“Hello to you too.” Helios said, already uncomfortable.

“Oh yeah? What would you know about competence? When's the last time you successfully fixed anything around here on your own?” Neo retorted.

“Well I didn't call you down to discuss my maintenance history, I brought you down here to tell you that this portal has been down for ages and yet you haven't made any effort to fix it in the slightest. Or did you just forget?”

“I was never notified of this portal being broken until ten minutes ago! How am I supposed to fix something if you don't tell me that it's broken?”

“That's not my problem, just get to work. Unless you'd rather I tell Argon that his head technician is incompetent and I'd be best to take his place? After all, this wouldn't be the first time you've forgotten to do something important.”

“...Fine. Just tell me what I need to do to.” Neo mumbled bitterly.

“That's better. Follow me you two.” Xenon said in that same smug tone that Neo loathed.

They then approached the portal hookup of terminal 1Z. A hookup that appeared so abandoned that it almost looked as if nothing important had existed in it at all. The usual railing that lead the passenger capsule down into the portal was still intact, however there was no capsule to be found. The entire base felt crooked, even the industrial door that closed it off from the public was seemingly rusted beyond functionality. Still, the trio of coworkers ventured into the portal hookup and ducked beneath rail that carried the passenger capsules into the portal hookup’s core. All the powerful, heavy machinery surrounding the hookup had been built to be inaccessible to travelers, but Neo’s flexible limbs and climbing ability allowed him to slip easily through the narrow passageway. Helios, on the other hand, was having trouble fitting his wide metal shoulder pieces through. Xenon didn’t bother passing through at all, and clearly had no intention of sticking around for long, which Neo was thankful for.

“I haven’t seen anyone come down to this gate in decades.” Helios remarked as he finally made his way down into the portal chamber.

“Yeah, me neither. Are you sure there's still a main portal here? I know Argon shut down a few docks down here because they were left unfinished.” Neo said, skeptical of what Xenon expected them to do.

“Why wouldn't there be a portal here? What, do you think Argon would send the three of us down here to have a tea party or something?” Xenon replied, eyes darting backward.

“Wouldn’t be the worst thing you’ve made us do...” Neo muttered.

“Whatever, get down there and fix it.”

Neo paused, looking down in reluctance at the chasm of stripped wires and rusted machinery he was assigned to.

“Now.” Xenon said strictly.

Neo thought for a moment. The entire area seemed to be beyond repair, but he figured this was another one of Xenon’s tests and if he managed to get it up and running again Xenon wouldn’t be able to rub his face in his failure. And denying Xenon that satisfaction was motivation enough for Neo. Without another word, he put his headlamp on and started climbing down the wall leading to his assignment as Helios followed suit.

“It's so dark, did the portal breaking kill the lights around here too?” Helios asked, using his built-in flashlight to illuminate the mangled equipment.

“It's possible, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it happen here.” Neo replied

“Think we should mention it to Xenon?”

Neo thought for a second and said “Nah, he'll never listen to us anyway. Let me see what I can do first.” He knelt down to get a closer look at the state of the portal generator. “Man, this thing is ancient.”

“Can you fix it?”

“I dunno, it looks like a model from way back when this place was first built. Not sure if I remember how these work, most of them are long past being in service. Can you pass me my wrench?”

“What do you think is the problem?”Helios asked as he pulled a large, multi-tipped wrench out of the toolbox and handed it over.

“Well, from what I can tell it looks to be almost-functioning but the electrical waves that it would emit would be way above the standard safe level of stability. That means that the other portal it’s supposed to lead to is also broken, usually.”

“Maybe we should test it to see how dangerous the waves are?”

“Yeah, why don't we get Xenon to be our tester?” Neo joked.

“I can hear you, you know!” Echoed Xenon’s voice from his position up at the entrance of the terminal.

Neo ignored him and continued to evaluate the machine. Using the wrench, he pried a few rusted cables out of their ports and set to stripping and removing several damaged wires. A few minutes later, he set them back as they were before and checked the Vigorite power generator. Nothing seemed to be too irreparable, but Neo knew the portal was nowhere near usable yet. Still, he wouldn’t let that stop him from working to prove Xenon wrong.

“Okay, the portal should technically be able to function now, but it still isn’t in working order. I just need to hit the reset the panel on the wall out there to see how dangero-

Suddenly, the machinery around the portal began to spark and hum wildly, cutting Neo off.

“Uh oh, come on let's get out of here.” Neo said, startled.

“What happened?” Helios asked as the two ran upwards to the chamber’s entrance.

“I don't know. I didn't turn it on, I just set it up... I think? We should leave.” Neo said, beginning to panic.

The two ran up the entrance ramp and made a break for the door. However, they were terrified to see that the garage-style door had been shut in on them and there was no other way out.

“Why is the door closed?! Xenon, hey Xenon! We're locked in! The portal's restarting!” Neo yelled, banging on the door desperately.

The two continued to yell but there was no response to be heard.

“Xenon, what's going on! Are you still there? Neo, can't you fix this??” Helios said, looking over to Neo in terror.

“I don't know what went wrong!” Neo said as he grabbed onto Helios for protection.

“What's going to happen if the portal restarts while we're in here!?”

“I don't know, I really don't. I'm sorry!” Neo cried as the portal’s blinding lights began to flash, consuming the room. The last thing they heard were violent sounds of electrical snapping and roaring as Helios and Neo were transported against their will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Xenon’s a real jerk.


	3. Earthling

The next thing Neo knew, he was sprawled out on a splintered wood floor. Scared and disoriented, he tried to sit up, but immediately found he had a pounding headache and could barely force himself to move. When he was able to lift his head, he saw Helios lying face-up on the floor a few feet away. 

“Helios, I'm sorry... Helios? Hey, Helios?” Neo said, trying to get his attention. As he inched closer to his partner’s energy-drained body he realized that Helios wasn’t functioning anymore.

“Helios, come on, wake up, please! What happened to you?” Neo asked shakily, terrified at his partner’s current lifeless state.

In his fear, Neo failed to notice the stairs above him creaking loudly. He hadn’t paid any attention to his surroundings until suddenly a light overhead flickered on. He turned his head rapidly to see who was there and saw a short, heavy set, brown-skinned being looking back at him in shock. They stared at one another awkwardly for a moment before Neo broke the silence.

“Uh... hello...”

The being lifted up her glasses and squinted, struggling to take in what was happening in front of her. After a moment she sighed, put her head in her hands, and mumbled to herself “I really need to make an appointment with that psychologist...”

“What? Wait, can you help me here? I really need-” Neo replied, confused at her reaction.

“Nope! No, do not talk to me. You’re not real, I’m not seeing this. I’m dreaming, I’m hallucinating, or... something.” She said curtly, holding her hands up in front of her face to block him from her view.

“What are you talking about? I’m- Look, never mind, I need your help.” Neo asked desperately, grabbing her by the hand.

As she felt him grab her, the girl gasped and ran upstairs as fast as she could. Neo could hear her frantically moving things around in her loft.

“Wait wait wait! Don't leave! Where are you going?” He yelled, fearing she was trying to escape, but he stopped when he saw her returning with a glowing rectangular object in her hands. The bright light from the object hurt his eyes, and he groaned as he felt his headache grow more severe. 

“Just had to make sure I had something to document this. I mean, if this actually happening. Is it? Is this real? Are you real? Am I real??” She asked rapidly, seeming to be brimming with both anxiety and excitement simultaneously.

“What? I mean, I think so...” Neo replied, completely taken aback by her question. He had never seen someone in such disbelief about his existence and he didn’t know how to respond. “N-no hold on, I work at a teleportation center and this is-”

“Teleportation center?! Oh my god, I did it... I-I invented a functioning portal! I invented something that works! You’re an alien! You are an alien, aren’t you? Nice to meet you, I’m a human, I’m Rena.” The girl said, again cutting Neo off in her excitement.

“W-whatever you say, look I need your help here really bad. My partner won't wake up and I think your portal may have done something to him.”

“Partner?...” Rena asked as she glanced behind Neo and saw Helios collapsed on the floor. “Oh shit, what happened to him?” She asked, her thrilled demeanor shifting to one of concern. “Is he an android? He looks pretty complicated...”

“Yeah, I don’t know what to do now though.” Neo answered, struggling to even process what had just happened to them. He was feeling slightly more aware of the situation now, and suddenly the fear of having lost Helios had set in all at once.

“What kind of energy does he run on?” She asked, trying to be helpful.

“Oh, uh he runs on a Vigorite battery. Here, I have a spare one on me.” Neo said, calming down a tiny bit now that he could adequately communicate with the human. He pulled a faintly glowing black and yellow cylinder off his belt and displayed it to her. 

Rena was impressed by all the foreign technology before her as she replied in an awed tone “Wow. Where do you insert it?”

“Here” he said, gesturing to a part of Helios’s chestplate. “Let me see, it might be broken.”

Neo lifted up Helios's exterior chestplate and carefully removed out the old Vigorite battery. The battery was sputtering and cracked, and looked ready to destabilize at any moment.

“Looks like the battery overloaded.” She observed.

“I guess the electric waves on the inside of the portal made the energy crystal destabilize. That’s weird... but teleportation is kind of dangerous so that’s possible. But then how the hell did it take us here?!” 

“Hey man, don’t ask me, I've never seen that thing even function before now. What did you do to make it work like that all of a sudden?” Rena replied, both concerned for and fascinated by the strange creature going through an external crisis in her living room.

Neo didn’t respond as he crouched over Helios’s body and quickly installed the new battery. “Okay that should be it... Come on, come on, please wake up!” Neo pleaded.

As he spoke, a dim light began to flicker slowly in Helios's eyes and chest screen. The motors beneath his artificial skin began to hum and activate as he drifted back to consciousness. In a daze, he sat up, and emitted a sound similar to that of a computer activating.

“Oh my... Huh? Neo! What happened to us?” He asked, suddenly snapping to life as he regained his memory of their previous accident.

Neo hugged him tightly as a massive wave of relief swept through his body, feeling infinitely thankful for Helios’s safe recovery. “Oh thank the stars you're okay...” he whispered to himself.

“Wait, where are we? What happened??”

“You're on Earth! You two fell through my science project over there.”

“Earth?!” Neo asked, mentally digging through his memories, hoping to find some past mention of such a planet but finding none.

“...Science project?” Helios asked, looking over at the impressive mass of wires, motors, and steel that were fused together to form the homemade portal.

Neo leapt up and began pacing across the floor anxiously. “This is a nightmare, first I've never seen a portal malfunction like this before and now we're stuck on some random uncharted planet!”

“Yeah, of all the travelers I've talked to I don't think I've ever met someone who was coming to a place called Earth. But if that’s the case then... how did Telhub have a portal that leads here?” Helios asked aloud, perplexed.

“...Sorry, but who are you again?” Rena asked, still not totally convinced that what she was experiencing wasn’t a dream.

“Hm? Oh, my apologies, my name is Helios!” Helios replied in his usual cheerful tone.

“...And I'm Neo.” Neo said absently, still pacing and still panicking.

“Sorry, this is my partner and I'm pretty sure this is the first time he's been away from work in the last few decades or so.” Helios responded, only slightly exaggerating.

“Oh, work partners or romantic partners?” 

“Both.” Neo replied briefly.

“Yep, for about a century or so. But enough about us, what's your name?” Helios asked, curious about the earthling girl and her undiscovered planet.

“I’m Rena. It doesn't matter though. The important thing here is how you guys made my portal work. You said you work for a teleportation center right? Is that something aliens have mastered?” She said, opening the recording device on her phone and preparing to take notes.

“Well "mastered" would be an overstatement really. These things break all the time. I was working on a really old one when it suddenly reset and threw us here.” Neo explained, exasperated.

“So, just to be clear, you guys didn't come here on purpose?” 

“No way, I've barely ever gone through a Telhub portal before now. There's no way I'd choose to get stranded on some distant planet by accident. I’d lose my job! And now I’m probably going to. Why is this happening to us?!” Neo ranted.

“That’s fair. I mean, if I had a choice in the matter I would never choose to visit Earth either.” Rena said in agreement. 

“I sure it’s not that bad, tell us more about earth!” Helios asked, far more calmly than his still deeply frustrated partner.

“Earth? Who cares about earth? Everything here sucks. You two are literally from outer space, tell me about that!”

“Come on, you should tell us about earth first! Don't you want to hear about it, Neo?”

“Well, since we're on Earth right now we should probably learn what the deal is here.” He said, taking a deep breath in. “But don't get too excited, the second I figure out how to fix this I'm going back to work.”

“Oh come on. We just landed on an entirely brand new planet and all you're worried about is getting back to the same place you've lived for your whole life?” Helios asked in disbelief.

“Okay okay, maybe not immediately. But we can figure that out later. Go ahead Rena, tell us about ‘Earth’.”


	4. Stranded

“Okay, here’s the deal with Earth. The only living things here are plants and animals and humans like me and we need oxygen and water to not die. We’re the only sentient living things though, but that’s really not a good thing. Most humans are terrible to each other anyways, and a lot of us are the worst. We also make a lot of trash and kill each other.” She explained, but upon realizing how limited her description of all of humanity’s existence sounded she quickly added “But some of us are nice. It’s not that interesting... Do you have oxygen or water where you’re from?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

“Oh, okay then...Well, there’s no oxygen on Telhub as far as I know but I'm pretty sure we have that water thing, of course I've never tried it since I haven’t got a mouth.” Helios replied, now concerned for the earth girl’s bleak-sounding existence.

“Come on, now you have to tell me everything about Telhub. What's your technology like? How do you communicate? And how does your teleportation system work??” 

“Ah, right! Okay, so our teleportation systems are some of the oldest in the galaxy and they let everyone get from one place to another really quickly and, um... Well, that’s the basic of it. There’s a reason why I’m a greeter and not a mechanic like Neo.” Helios trailed off.

“Nothing I know about Telhub can explain why we were transported here. If this portal never worked before, why did it work for us? And why isn't it working now?” Neo said as he desperately punched at the various buttons and dials on Rena’s portal, which was currently generating nothing but flickering lights and troubling electrical sounds.

“You said portals break all the time, didn’t you?”

“I did, but I've never had to fix a portal made with "earth" technology. I don't know if I can figure out the problem here.”

“Yeah, I’m guessing there’s a pretty big difference...” Rena said, awkwardly glancing at the various poor-condition recycled machine parts that comprised her portal’s structure.

“Wait, Neo! I just remembered, I have a tracker somewhere in my system, don’t I?” Helios exclaimed.

“Oh, right, I forgot about that! Hurry, start it up and see if we can contact anyone back home. Thank the stars, we’re not stranded.” Neo said, overjoyed that there was finally a glimmer of hope for them to return.

As Neo spoke, the large LED screen on Helios's chest began to glow and opened to what appeared to be a computer home screen. 

“Oh, wow. You’re your own computer, huh?” Rena asked, amazed but still slightly in disbelief.

“Pretty much, it’s more convenient than you’d think.” 

“Can I see?” She asked, gesturing to Helios’s screen.

“Go ahead! If you want to log in the password is H31i05.”

After he spoke, a flat piece of Helios's torso flipped upwards and spread out to give the appearence of a keyboard. Intrigued, Rena leaned in to type the password and shifted the keyboard’s tracking pad around the desktop until a pop-up window came across the screen. She attempted to read it, but the page was littered with seemingly random, incomprehensible symbols and text.

“Whoa, is this some kind of secret android language or something?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. It’s just my entry in the galaxy's emoticon database. I submit updates to it every week. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to make text expressions for creatures with multiple eyes and mouths...” 

“I can imagine. How do I open the tracking software?”

“Just click settings and go to the page that says "Telhub Status". As long as Telhub is open it should show how to alert a supervisor of our location.”

“Ah, I can't seem to... open it? I’m on the status page but nothing is showing except an error message.”

“What? That can't be right, here restart the browser and open it again.”

“I think your emergency shutdown might’ve damaged your hardware a little bit.”

“Oh boy, I suppose that since we were teleported without the normal passenger capsule’s protection, it must have done some internal damage to me.”

“And you didn’t notice until now?? Let me see!” Neo exclaimed as he leaned down to check Helios's chest screen, praying for their last chance to get home to succeed. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide as he made a horrific realization. “Oh god, please tell me you have my toolbox...”

“Didn’t you leave it on the- um, no I don’t...” Helios mumbled.

“Oh no, no no no, I left it on the ramp, god damn it! Why? Why is this happening to me?!” He cried, pulling at his horns in frustration.

“Er, did you try turning it off and on again first? That fixes most things here.” Rena said.

“Calm down Neo, I’m sure we can-“ Helios began, but was interrupted by Neo lamenting.

“Well...That's it I guess... I'll be fired, we'll never make it out of this planet and I'm going to die here.” Neo said with a sudden alarming calmness as he slumped down on the floor in defeat.

“Come on Neo, it's not that bad. I mean... uh... at least... this looks like a good planet to die on?” Helios said, struggling to come up with some way to cheer up his discouraged partner.

“Okay slow down guys. You're not gonna die here. Look, with your knowledge of teleportation tech I bet that if you helped me we could fix this portal ourselves and get you back to your Telhub.”

Neo, whose mind at the moment was spinning with anxiety, defeat, and a dull migrane, sat back up and thought for a moment. He sighed, feeling a little clearer, and said “Okay, okay if you think that’ll work we need to start right now.”

“Got it, I'll get my tools.” Rena replied, impressed that her explanation was actually able to encourage the hopeless alien. She turned to a corner of her barn house’s living space and dug around in a crate filled with a disjointed collection of second-hand engineering gear. It took her a moment to finally piece together a full set. 

“Here's what I’ve got, what do you think?”

Neo looked down in dismay at the small collection of tools. It was clear to him that, compared to his culture’s technology, they were about a quarter as advanced as his usual repair toolset. The small bit of determination he’d momentarily sparked up was beginning to fizzle, and he muttered “I think I really need to keep my tools on my belt so I don't loose them and end up stranded in a place like this.”

“Okay...” She said, sensing his increasing discouragement. “Here, I'll help you. Now this is a wrench, this is mainly used to-“

“I know what a wrench is.” Neo said, growing impatient. “I just need your explanation for the materials. Like what is this thing for?” He asked, pointing to a long flat object stretched around two of the portal’s central gears. 

“That's a treadmill conveyor belt. It's made of rubber and it's hooked up to the engine.”

“What kind of engine do you have? Hydrogen? Nebular?”

“Uh, I mean, kind of... it’s the engine to an old car I found in a junkyard.”

Neo covered his first set of eyes with his palms and muttered “Oh my god, I'm never gonna be able to make this work.”

“Don't be like that, it worked once before didn't it?” Helios asked patiently.

“Yeah, once...”

“And that's better than never, isn't it?”

“I guess so. I mean, if it could manage to bring us all the way from Telhub to here it must be more powerful than we think.”

“I wouldn’t think it’d be possible either, but after everything else that’s happened tonight I don’t think I can say that about anything anymore.” Rena said, stifling a yawn. Suddenly, she felt all the exhilaration of the recent events fade and a wave of exhaustion take over instead. It was almost three in the morning and, as a college student, her usual sleep schedule was less than healthy to begin with. “Now, this base here is made of pvc pipe I wielded together and...” she trailed off, appearing to lose her train of thought.

“Are you ok?” Helios asked.

“No no, I’m good. Uh, here’s the construction notes I made on the portal if that helps. I'll just sit here for a second.” Rena said, passing him a beaten up binder stuffed with blueprints as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

She sat down on a beaten-up armchair near her workbench and, despite her best efforts, quickly fell asleep. Helios and Neo looked at each other for a moment and decided not to wake her as they worked. This was his problem after all, Neo thought, he should be the one to fix it. In the darkness of the early morning, the displaced partners continued to work for the few hours they had until the sun came up.


	5. Stream of Setbacks

Rena awoke again in a daze. She had no concept of how long she’d slept and she groaned upon realizing she’d passed out. Briefly she had forgotten the events of earlier that morning, but when reality set in and she remembered she was responsible for two extraterrestrial beings she quickly woke up and called out.

“Hello? Guys??”

“Rena! I’m out here. Sorry, I meant to wake you earlier.” Helios said from the back of the barn.

She bolted to the back porch, worried if anyone had noticed him outside. She was met by Helios holding her smartphone, which was playing a loud techno ring tone.

“Your rectangular device has been trying to communicate with us somehow, but I haven’t been able to understand it.” 

“Shit, my phone! Give it to me, it's probably my coworkers.” She said, snatching the phone back and holding it to her ear just as it stopped ringing. “Great, I missed it...”

“You have a job?” Neo asked from inside, still stationed underneath the pvc portal base, still working diligently.

“Yeah, I'm a waitress at a cafe a few blocks from here and I was supposed to work the morning shift today but I'm already gonna be late and Saturdays are always busy for us so I gotta leave. Ugh, this is not good...” she rambled.

“What’s so bad about that? Jobs are fun.” Helios asked, stepping back inside.

“Maybe where you're from. The only reason we humans put up with the 6th layer of hell that is customer service jobs is because we need to have money.” She explained, checking around the living room for her laundry basket. She found it hiding behind the couch, and pulled out a burgundy polo shirt and a black apron with a large hand-stitched “404” embroidered on it underneath a name tag.

“What’s that for?” Neo asked.

“This is the what I have to wear to work.”

“It doesn’t look as if it would offer much protection against electrical hazards.”

“Yeah, most human jobs don't involve deadly electrical hazards. I just serve people coffee. A lot of humans have jobs like that.”

“If you hate your job, why are you still there?” Helios asked.

“I mean, I don’t hate my job, but I need one if I want to have money. And I don't have a lot of money, if you can’t tell by the fact that I live in a 50 year old barn house owned by my friend’s family.”

“What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“Money, what is that?”

“You mean your alien society doesn’t have money?”

“I guess not? What is it?”

“Oh, wow. Well, it’s basically just fancy paper you exchange for things like food and water and shelter so you don’t die.”

“Seriously? We don’t have anything like that. Our jobs are just based off what you’re good at, not some kind of hostage situation.” Neo said, climbing out from under the portal base and dusting himself off.

“It’s just how earth is, it sucks but you get used to it eventually. Or at least that's what they say.” 

“Who's ‘they’?” Helios asked.

Before she could answer him, the phone in Rena’s hand began aggressively ringing again.

“Sorry, I gotta take this.” She said, pressing the call button and answering “Hello?”

“Do you feel any better, Helios?” Neo asked.

“Well, my energy level feels back to normal but my tracking software is still down. I'm alright though, the damage could've been much worse given how unpredictable old portals can be.”

“Wait, I think I might have some replacement circuit boards in my belt if you think that might help.” Neo said as he opened a small pouch on his belt and began pulling things out. Among the small computing chips and machinery were several quarter-sized glittering yellow stones. While on her phone, Rena stared at the diamonds with wide eyes.

“...I'm gonna have to call you back, Clara.” She said, turning off her phone. “Are... Are those yellow diamonds?” She asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, they're Vigorite energy diamonds. Why?”

“Do you have any idea how much gems like those are worth on earth?”

“I don’t know, I only keep this many in my pouch because I used to always forget to bring them when I was working on repair projects.”

“Repair projects? A diamond that one's size is worth what I make in months!”

“Wait, really? 

“Yes! Hold on, I'll text my manager that I’m sick. I'll have to pawn them sometime this week. This is amazing. I can't believe that you get paid in diamonds?”

“We don’t get paid in them. We use them as a source of power. In fact, Telhub’s center is nothing but a huge core of energy diamonds. Be careful though, sometimes they can be unstable.” Helios warned.

“Don't worry, these ones aren't. Probably. It takes a long time and lot of damage for an energy diamond to destabilize.” 

“That’s incredible!” Rena said, launching into an excited explaination about how almost all of her financial problems could disappear thanks to her malfunctioning science project. 

Neo, still hazy on the details of her difficult planet, was entranced by the earth girl’s reaction. He couldn’t understand such an excitement over something that, to him, was so mundane. Briefly, Neo felt a strange twinge of sadness come over him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt as excited as she seemed to be. Then again, he thought, he hadn’t really been doing much of anything exciting outside of Telhub for the last two centuries or so... Suddenly he felt dizzy. Two centuries? Had it really been that long? How had he not realized that before? No wonder his memory was terrible, he thought, all of his days were so similar they blurred together. Every day like every other, working in his dark little room alone until-

“Neo? Are you alright?” Helios asked, putting his hand on Neo’s shoulder. Neo shook his head, realizing how distressed his expression must have looked, and said

“Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry. Glad we could help you, Rena. Now that you’re up let’s get back to the portal.” He said, unconvincingly.

Helios didn’t press him further.

The three of them crowded around the portal hookup. Neo began examining Rena’s tools, but due to his alien anatomy he was having trouble positioning them in his hands. Not sure how else to contribute, Helios sat atop Rena’s splintered work desk, gazing out the barn windows at the new and interesting landscape and occasionally checking his screen for any signs of functioning.

“So Rena, why did you try to make a portal if humans don't understand them?” Helios asked.

“Well, I’m majoring in quantum physics and I wanted to investigate a little further some of the stuff we had learned about. I mean, I always figured full functionality on this thing would be a huge long shot. But now that it’s actually working I’m not sure what to do with it.” Rena explained.

“No kidding.” Neo said.

“You certainly came a long way if it was able to contact Telhub. As far as I know I don’t think anyone else even knows about this planet. And I talk to all the travelers, it’s part of my job. You’d never believe the stories some people tell. You know one time I heard a story from someone from Tormoret-6 who had a cousin that was a-“

“Come on, we should stay focused. Rena, where's the battery located?” Neo asked, cutting Helios’s story short. He normally loved to hear his partner talk, but he knew Helios’s stories about Telhub’s patrons could run long and Neo felt they didn’t have that kind of time.

“It's bolted in under here.” She said, lifting up a battered metal hatch on the base of the portal hookup. Neo bent down to peer inside. All that was within the port was a black, burnt-up car battery and oil residue.

“Is it supposed to be, uh, like that?”

“Huh?” Rena asked, leaning down to get a closer look. “Oh man, what happened to it?”

“Looks like it caught fire.”

“Ugh, I knew this one was too old, it must have overloaded when you came through the portal. Then again, I got it from the scrap metal yard so I guess it wasn't the best quality.” She said, regretting her technological choices.

“How are we going to fix it then?” Neo said. This repair job’s stream of setbacks was quickly becoming more exhausting than anxiety-inducing for him. 

“Okay let me think.” She thought for a moment and soon announced “Alright the robotics lab at my college should be open by now and since it's early-ish on a Saturday it's probably empty. I can just stop by there and see if they have any spare batteries we can borrow.”

“Wait, let me come with you. We might need other supplies.” Neo offered.

“Me too, I want to see more of this planet.” Helios said.

“Um... sure, I guess you can come.” She said. Rena knew there would obviously be consequences if the three of them were discovered, but upon seeing how eager Helios and Neo were to follow her she decided she couldn’t let them down. She also was feeling slightly guilty for the trouble her project had caused them and didn’t want to make things more complicated, if that was even possible at this point. “Don’t let anyone see you,” she added “I don’t know what will happen if someone catches us, but it won’t be good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She’s right.


	6. The Lab

The town of Bullford seemed off. It’s architectural clash of modern, angular academic buildings and decades-old homes and public centers made the entire town seem to be suspended in a permanent state of aesthetic purgatory. Founded only a few decades ago, the college’s campus was vast and ate up much of the land that before made up farms that were once used to keep the town’s businesses alive. Like an invasive species, the university and all it’s periphery terraformed the small, quiet town, bending it out of shape to suit the needs of the incoming population. The residents who had lived there for generations had no choice but to give in to the sudden shift with almost no time to even recognize what was happening. Many of them were left with nothing but a vague sense of longing for the simple Bullford they use to know, a Bullford that didn’t exist anymore. 

Rena had only lived there for a few months, but she could relate. She was no stranger to longing for the past. The logical side of her told her that kind of feeling was pointless, but it was still impossible to ignore. Deep down it only added to the raw feeling of loneliness that had been a part of her since she became a young adult.

She always told herself that this was all probably part of the normal human experience and that everything will be okay in the end and she just needed to hang in there and various other positive inspirational poster phrases that she knew were shallow but helped her feel just a little bit more normal.

That line of thinking did little for her now though, as she was pretty sure escorting a lost alien and android through an old, tree-concealed path onto a college campus was almost certainly not part of the normal human experience.

Rena walked quietly and carried a large frog-print umbrella, holding it at an angle to conceal Helios and Neo a bit. The path they walked took them through a small wooded area, filled with thin trees that had lost most of their leaves. The sky was gray and intimidating dark clouds rested on the horizon as humidity-fed fog hung drearily in the air.

“This earth doesn't get much light, does it?” Helios asked.

“It's not normally like this, you guys just came during our rainy season. And we’re almost there, the lab is a little further down this road and to the left.”

“You get rain here? I love rain, but not a lot of planets in our galaxy have atmospheres so I don’t get to see it much. What else does your planet have? And what’s college?”

“Well, people say college is a place to learn things but nowadays the only reason I go is so I can get a better job. I mean, I can't be a barista forever. Do you not have public education on your planet?”

“There’s nothing like than on Telhub, but then again it’s not really a planet. I can’t say whether that’s the case about any other planets. I’ve only ever lived at Telhub so everything I ever learned there was for my job.” Neo responded.

“Your whole life? Doesn’t that get boring?”

“That’s what I always say. He never comes with me when I travel either.”

“...I dunno. I don’t like traveling, I guess. You know that, Helios.”

“Did your parents live on Telhub?”

“Kind of. I was actually, uh, adopted by two workers there, Kaff and Wuni, when I was really young. I don't have biological parents. I mean, I probably had some, I just never knew them. Then again I don't remember much of anything about when I was younger so I guess it's just... y'know not something I really think about a lot.”

“Yeah, usually it's best to not dwell on that kind of thing. Analyzing the past too deeply makes the whole thing kind of start to unravel.” Rena added. She thought back to her own parents who’d been victims of a car crash when she was 13. It was nobody’s fault, just the result of a dark, rainy night and an unfortunate deer. Would she be happier if she couldn’t remember them at all? she wondered. She subconsciously remembered being in high school, and having to live with her aunt, and all the problems that were born from those situations. The problems of the past ingrained in a static-filled part of her mind that couldn’t be outrun. She started walking faster.

They continued down the path until they arrived at the robotics lab, a triangular building coated with glass panels that seemed to glimmer, even with no sunlight. They passed several statues in the courtyard, most dedicated to historical technological innovators.

“So... what’s going on here?” Helios asked, awkwardly approaching a statue of Alan Turing and waving a hand in front of it’s ‘face’.

“Hm? Oh, those are just statues. They aren’t alive.” Rena responded, at first not registering how, from an alien’s perspective, these statues could appear so life-like. They were a little bit creepy to begin with, they were protected behind rectangular barriers of steel and glass, making them appear to be imprisoned like “lost souls of technological purgatory” as her friend Clara described them.

“Right, right... Hey Neo, doesn't that statue kinda look like Wuni?” He asked, pointing to a small metal statue of a Pegasus emblazoned with the logo of an IT company.

“Oh yeah, maybe if it was purple it would.”

“Wuni was one of your moms, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, she was one of the top Telhub mechanics. She taught me more or less everything I know about portals. But I haven't seen her since she retired a few years back.”

“We should really keep in touch with her, she was the best. I think now she and Kaff run a prosthetic laboratory somewhere near Zandrion.”

“How do you know that?”

“We follow each other on social media. She writes in a lot of capital letters.”

“And she was a Pegasus?” Rena asked.

“I guess so, but she didn't really look like that statue. She only had one eye and a horn, plus her wings weren't feathered like that.”

“Oh, like that old song?”

“Like the what?”

“The flying purple... uh, nevermind” 

Rena paused and dug around in the crumpled paper that filled her backpack to find her student ID. She pressed it against a scanner on the wall and the glass doors promptly slid open, revealing the vast room cluttered with tables holding various expensive looking machines and many strange work-in-progress inventions. The robotics lab at Bullford was mostly famous for the fact it required more calls to the fire department per semester than any other field. Though often full of students, staff, and their various projects, this Saturday morning it sat entirely unoccupied. Quiet, still, and void of life, like a dormant volcano. 

“Oh wow, it really is empty.” She remarked, her voice echoing off the walls. “Well, the batteries should be somewhere over here. Think there’s anything else we’ll need?” Rena asked, pointing to an enormous door adorned with a post-it note that read “STORAGE ROOM” in intensely scribbled handwriting.

“We should probably pick up some surge protectors to keep it from shorting out again.” Helios advised, scanning the cluttered room out of curiosity.

“It does seem prone to that.” Neo mentioned as he examined the foundation of a speaker podium that appeared to have been chemically burned more than once.

“Good call. Here, hold this and keep a lookout while I grab them.” She said handing Helios her umbrella.

“You got it.”

Neo stood agains a glass wall separating the lab from another room full of biology equipment and caged animals. Glancing briefly through the glass he saw a strange and disturbing creature resting on a rock in a tank. It was green, with long limbs and broad horns on its body. For Neo, it’s resemblance was far too strong for comfort. It opened it’s unfocused eyes and stared up at him blankly. 

“...I don't like this planet.” He mumbled as he heard a hidden door down the hallway creak open.


	7. “Cousins”

As Rena reached for the batteries loaded on the top shelf of a massive bookcase, the storage room’s door was flung open and Helios and Neo dashed inside.

“Someone’s here!” Helios said, pressing his back against the door

“What?! I thought you were keeping lookout?”

“We did, that's why we're here! What do we do?”

“Okay, this bad. What did they look like? Were they a student or a professor?”

“Uh, I don't know. I mean, they had these big glasses and a labcoat. I think.” Neo described.

“Nevermind, just stop talking. If they hear us there’s no chance we’ll get out.”

As if in response to her statement, the handle to the closet door began to jiggle. Wordlessly and with no other options, Helios, Neo, and Rena scrambled to hide behind the storage cases.

From her spot between the shelving unit and the wall, Rena saw the door swing open to reveal a familiar figure. She was a tall, dark-skinned woman in her late 50s wearing lab coat over a plaid dress and holding a white and red-tipped vision assistance cane. As she stepped over to the shelves, Rena recognized the woman as Dr. Emily Walker, her biology professor and the aunt of her best friend/coworker, Tess Walker.

Without turning on the lights, Dr. Walker walked over to the unit Neo was hiding behind and reached for something on the top shelf. Neo winced as her hands drew dangerously close to his horns while she grasped around for what she was looking for. Unable to take the suspense anymore, Rena suddenly sprung out from her hiding place.

“Dr. Walker! Hello, hey, what's, uh, what's going on?” She exclaimed shakily.

“Rena? Is that you?” She asked, turning towards the direction of Rena’s voice. “What brings you to the lab storage room at 8:30 on a Saturday?”

“Oh just, counting the inventory! You know, conservation of mass, and uh, everything...” She said nervously, stepping to the side and turning Dr. Walker away from Neo and Helios’s hiding place. “So, uh, what are you looking for?”

“Oh, just magnesium ribbons for a lab I'm planning. I haven’t been able to find them so far, but then again it’s hard to find much of anything in this closet. Would you mind showing me where they are?”

“Magnesium ribbons... uh, not sure where that would be...” she admitted as she motioned frantically to Helios and Neo, pointing them towards the door. Neo went to open it, but quickly found that the knob was stuck and wouldn’t turn. He started to pull at it desperately as Rena continued to stall.

“But didn’t you say you were doing inventory?”

“Right, right... Well I'm actually just about done for now so if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go ahead and-“ She was immediately interrupted by the sound of the doorknob popping out of its socket followed by the crash of Neo falling backwards into a set of metal file cabinets.

“What on earth was that?” Dr. Walker exclaimed, jolting back from the source of the noise.

“I, uh...” Rena struggled to come up with anything approximating a valid excuse until she eventually landed on “My friends! My friends were helping me.” She hurried towards Neo, who was groaning in sharp pain, and pulled him up. “Yeah and we just had trouble with the door. Haha, these doorknobs aren’t what they used to be, right?”

“Ah, you'll have to forgive me for not noticing, my eyesight is rather poor nowadays. Who are you?” She asked, turning to Helios and Neo.

They both looked to Rena in complete confusion. Emphatically she mouthed the words "Say something". Not knowing what else to do, Helios began to introduce himself.

“Well... I'm Helios and this is Neo, we're both from Tel-“

“-AVIV,” Rena interrupted “They're my cousins from Tel Aviv and they’re just visiting Texas for the day.”

“Oh... Yes! Tel Aviv, such a lovely...” Helios began hesitantly.

“Country” Rena whispered to him.

“Yes, country!”

“Oh really? Forgive me Rena, but I don't remember you mentioning you had family visiting from Tel Aviv.”

“Oh well uh, it is kind of a spur of the moment visit. I don't get to see them much, you know with airline ticket prices and all. That's why every moment we spend together is important and we should probably leave right now” she said, desperately hoping to cut the conversation short before any more questions could be asked.

“If I had known they were visiting I would’ve invited them into the house. Do you have enough room at our barnhouse? I know it’s not very spacious.”

“Oh, the barn belongs to you?” Helios asked, much to Rena’s chagrin.

“Mm-hm, my parents owned the farm, but not much farming goes on there anymore. We never got much use of that old barnhouse anyhow. You’re welcome to stay there too for your visit if you’d like.”

“That’s very, uh, generous of you, but Rena’s right. We should really get going now.” Neo said.

“Ah I understand, I won't take up anymore of you kids’s time, I really ought to be getting back to my office anyhow. I'll have to get to that magnesium ribbon another time.”

“Yes! You do that! Nice meeting you here! See you at home!” Rena said finally, practically pushing Dr. Walker out the door.

“Goodbye!” Dr. Walker said, with no knowledge of the extraterrestrial creatures that she had just beared witness to. As she walked through the knobless doorway, Rena slammed it shut behind her. She leaned against it and sighed.

“That was... god that was way too close. We have got to get back to the barn.”

“Why are you so afraid of us being seen? That person seemed fine. And you know we're not here to destroy your planet or whatever you humans assume aliens do.” Neo asked.

“I know that, but people here don't. And I promise that nobody will be stopping to ask what your personal motive is when they see you have green skin and four eyes or are 6 feet tall and made of metal. We’re just lucky Professor Walker can barely see.”

“Well, that's awfully shallow.” Helios remarked.

“Yeah, on Telhub I've worked with aliens with six sets of teeth and twelve legs and I never complained about it.”

“Well if you ever want to get back to Telhub we need to get this battery back to my room, let's go.”

As she took one step towards the door an enormous, sky-splitting crash ripped through the area. Without seeing what happened, Rena already had a strong feeling it had something to do with the three of them.

“Great, what now?” She asked out loud in exasperation.

“...maybe it was thunder?” Helios replied hopefully.

After he spoke, a speaker outdoor loudly crackled to life and a familiar voice called out:

“ATTENTION WORKER 26693: BOARD THIS SHIP AND RETURN TO YOUR WORK STATION IMMEDIATELY”


	8. Knockback

Rena, Helios, and Neo ran outside and looked to the source of the noise. They saw that a large, disc-shaped aircraft had crashed into a large oak tree in the area in front of the lab. As they got closer, the central door of the ship, which was now accordioned around the tree, blew open and a short, red, familiar figure hovered out of the crash’s debris.

“Xenon...” Neo gasped. “How did he get here? I thought your tracker was broken.” He asked Helios.

“It is! How could he possibly have found us without that? Did he know that portal lead to here?”

“I doubt it. But then how else could he have figured it out?” Neo speculated. Xenon was never much interested in Telhub’s actual main portal system, so Neo found it unlikely that Xenon would know where a decommissioned portal like the one he’d ordered them to fix would lead.

“Wait, who is that?” Rena asked.

“A guy I work with.” Neo answered.

“Yeah, I figured that. What is he doing here?”

Before either of them could answer her, Xenon called out. 

“Neo, Helios, I know you’re here!”

“Xenon, how the hell did you find us?” Neo asked, running up to the base of the ship.

“None of your business, technician.”

“I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but thank god you’re here, I thought we’d be stranded on this planet forever.” Neo replied, relief making him momentarily forget his previous grudges against his coworker.

“Wait, you’re happy to see him?” Rena asked.

“Of course. I have a job to get back to. Helios too. There’s no point in staying now.” He replied as he stepped towards the hatchway of the open spacecraft.

“But we can’t leave yet, we haven’t had the chance to fix Rena’s portal.” Helios said.

“We don’t need that anymore, now Xenon can just take us back. Come on, let’s go.” Neo said, gesturing to the ship’s interior.

“Oh... but I thought we were going to help her? She helped us.” 

“Right, uh, I mean...”

As he struggled to answer, Rena stared stone-faced towards the ground, hoping to conceal her disappointment.

“Besides, don’t you think Argon will want to know how her portal was synced with Telhub’s system? We’ll have to analyze it regardless, so why not do it while we’re already here?” Helios asked, trying to appeal to the logical side of his partner.

Neo looked down towards the both of them and the decision became clearer. “...Yeah, you’re right. Maybe we could-“

“Hate to break up this pity party but you two had better climb aboard and get back to work or else!” Xenon interrupted, uninterested in their personal matters.

“Oh yeah? I thought you always said I was terrible at my job and that you could do better.” Neo shot back at him.

“Don’t use my words against me! Look, either you and Helios come with me or... else!” Xenon shouted without much confidence. He clearly hadn’t planned on Helios and Neo objecting to his order, and now had no idea what else to threaten them with.

“Or else what?” Neo asked indignantly.

“Or else I’m going to... do this!” Xenon shouted, suddenly lifting his right arm and folding his fingers back, revealing a small laser blaster. Without thinking, he fired three warning shots into the air.

“Xenon, calm down! You can’t attack this planet just because of us.” Helios yelled sternly. Of all the things he disliked about Xenon, among his immaturity and disregard for safety, his temper was the most dangerous.

“Wrong answer!” Xenon yelled, aiming his blaster towards the trio. He hadn’t really wanted to escalate to violence, but he was desperate to get Helios and Neo back to Telhub. Besides, Radon had previously demonstrated it to be a pretty effective strategy. And he knew that if Argon found out that he’d managed to lose about 1/4th of Telhub’s conscious staff, he’d never consider promoting him again. Also he didn’t want Helios and Neo to be dead or anything. 

Xenon fired a few times into the ground near the three of them, purposely missing them but shooting close enough to be threatening. Helios grabbed Neo and Rena and darted behind the tree.

“What is wrong with him?!” Rena asked loudly.

“A lot.” Neo replied, peeking around the tree trunk to see Xenon continuing to shoot.

“Seriously, we can’t let Xenon destroy this place! What do we do?” Rena asked desperately, praying Xenon’s tantrum hadn’t already attracted police attention.

“Don’t worry, he’s not the only one with a blaster.” Helios replied.

She watched as Helios's fingers receded into the base of his left hand and his forearm split into a wide, glowing cannon shape. Aiming from behind the tree, Helios countered the shots fired Xenon by shooting them each out of the air before they hit the ground, evaporating the lasers into a puff of smoke and light. It wasn’t long before one shot drew too close to the ship, hitting the engine cover hard enough for it to emit smoke and a loud sputtering sound. The smoke temporarily blinded Xenon, making it impossible for him to aim and enraging him further.

“Whatever! Good luck getting off of this planet without me! You'll regret this!” He shouted, flaring up and angrily hovering higher into the air.

“What do you mean 'regret this’?” Rena asked.

“I don't need to answer to the likes of you, uh... whatever-you-are. ” He snapped back.

“You're out of your mind, I'm not following you! Screw it, we’ll find a way back ourselves, let’s go, guys.” Neo shouted, motioning for Helios and Rena to back away.

“F-Fine!” Xenon shouted, now at a loss with his plan having gone completely off the rails. “If you won’t follow me, I’ll make sure you can’t follow anyone else either! Good luck fixing your precious portal without a technician, Helios!” He yelled as he fired a shot directly at Neo, striking him in the upper chest and causing him to instantly collapse on the ground

“Neo!” Helios cried, running to pick him up and see if he was still breathing. The shock from Xenon’s blaster didn’t seem to have been lethal, but it had still knocked him out cold. “Rena, we have to get out of here now.”

“But we can't just let Xenon destroy this place!”

“We can deal with him later. Look, Neo’s unconscious, we can't let him get worse.” Helios said, picking up Neo in a bridal position and preparing to retreat.

“Hah, how can living things be so weak? I mean seriously Helios, I can't believe you've worked with that for so long.” Xenon announced smugly from atop his ship.

He had barely finished his sentence before he saw Helios’s head snap back around, eyes glowing with fury. He’d never seen Helios so angry, or really angry at all for that matter. Xenon watched as Helios’s hand rapidly folded back into blaster position and aimed upwards. Instantly the entire area was engulfed with heat and light as he fired a massive shot at Xenon. Before he knew it, Xenon had been knocked high into the air and over the laboratory building, hitting the concrete ground hard.

“...whoa.” Rena mumbled as she felt the sharp shockwave of the blast rush through the air.

Xenon yelled out from behind the lab, voice distorted due to the damage he’d just taken. “FINE! Go ahead and run away! Don't think that I can't find you again!”

That was the last thing they heard as Rena and Helios, with Neo in his arms, ran off towards the barn.


	9. Argon Awakened

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> special thanks to @ArcaneGash for beta reading! go check his stuff out its great

Krypton hovered briskly through an empty Telhub hallway, eyes darting around the barren space in an attempt to distract herself from her anxiety. The hustle and noise of the passenger crowd was far out of earshot from this restricted area, making the dread feel even more encompassing. This journey always made her uneasy, not so much due to the halls themselves but who she’d have to face at the end. All the vacant corridors she traversed coiled in a downward spiral leading to her destination, Telhub’s core. 

Krypton hadn’t spoken to Argon recently, mostly since every time she tried he would seldom answer with anything but a dead-eyed stare or vague mumblings about the futility of life. It was because of this, combined with Radon’s disinterest in anything but himself, that Krypton had long since resigned herself to running Telhub mostly alone. The galaxy did depend on it after all, it had to be someone’s responsibility. This, however, she couldn’t handle alone.

Once she reached her desolate destination, she tapped several keys on a pad against the wall which granted access to a large and imposing steel door. The door was bare, with no Telhub imagery indicating it’s importance, making it look more like it would lead to a janitor’s closet than the center of the most powerful portal system engine in the galaxy. A cold chill brushed against Krypton’s face screen as she entered the chamber. Aside from clusters of dust-coated energy diamonds fused into the walls and floor, shadows obscured everything in the room. Krypton called out into the darkness.

“Argon!” 

Her exclamation was predictably met with no reply. She spoke up again.

“Argon, listen to me! Helios, Neo, and Xenon are gone! I can’t contact them through the employee system and their tracking signals are offline.” After a short pause of silence she added “I know you can hear me.”.

This time her comment triggered a low humming noise. The sound built to a thundering volume as it grew stronger and echoed off the distant walls. The floors trembled and colorless lights began to glow on a partially obscured mass of machinery in the center of the room. Argon was awake.

The noises abruptly silenced and Argon’s voice, deep and hollow, responded. “They’re missing, are they?” He paused for a moment. “It was bound to happen... in time everything is lost...”

“Argon, you can’t keep moping around like this, I need you to help me. I can’t keep Telhub under control without them.”

“Is that not what I built you and your brothers for? Not to mention all the non sentient robots under your control? Why must you bother me with these affairs...”

Her eye twitched involuntarily. “We need them. I need them. They’re the last employees we have.”

“Of course. Ever since all the rest left after _she_ died.”

“Argon please, you can’t keep mourning Sophi, it’s been half a century. The galaxy and I both need you to move on.”

“Move on! How can I possibly move on when the person who created me, the only person who gave my existence purpose, is gone? I have nothing, no reason to continue, no choice but to bear this job that she left me with in this horrible place she built!” He thundered. 

It was then that Krypton realized there was nothing she could say that would get through to him. Nothing ever had before. Deep down she had expected this reaction, but her circuits still burned in resentment as she turned towards the exit. No matter how desperately she tried, she could never change him, Krypton thought. Argon was too engulfed in mourning for his creator to care about was happening in the present.

Sophi was the inventor of the galactic teleportation system and had founded Telhub centuries ago along with Argon, her most advanced creation. Krypton had never met Sophi, having been built by Argon just after she died to supplement the massive amount of employees who quit after the death of their leader. Originally Sophi had planned for Argon to take over as the head of Telhub’s operation, but after her death and the debilitating grief that overtook him it became clear that he would never fulfill that role. This ended in Krypton being forced to act as Telhub’s unofficial leader despite the fact that she wasn’t built for such a monumental task.

Krypton repressed her bitterness towards Argon deeper in her mind and kept moving, trying instead to focus on a solution to the problem she’d now have to face alone. She’d had plenty of practice with that kind of thing, she thought. 

Upon exiting the room she was greeted with another unpleasant surprise, her brother. As the imposing shadow of Radon fell upon her she mentally steeled herself for whatever complaint he was sure to throw at her.

“Hey, quit pissing Argon off.” He snapped.

“Didn’t you hear me? Helios, Neo, and Xenon are _gone_!” She was in no mood to tolerate Radon’s usual petty demands.

“So what? I never liked those two anyway. And hell, it’s not like we’ve ever needed Xenon around this place.” He dismissed. “And if you get Argon involved in any of this bullshit, he might start trying to change the way things operate around here.”

“Mhm, sure.” Was all Krypton could force out as a response. Her eye twitched and her fingers were clenched in fists but she tried hard to contain her frustration. “Well don’t worry about Argon, I already talked to him and he won’t be doing anything anytime soon. Just like always.” 

“Besides, I’ll take care of it. I am the head of security after all, this isn’t your territory, Kryp. I’ve got everything under control. It’s easy when you’re not complaining about everything, you should try that sometime.”

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?” She snapped. Retaliating against Radon had always been pointless, she thought, but this was her breaking point.

“Just saying, you never see me bothering Argon with my problems and I’m doing great. You seem to have a whole lot more problems with everything than I do.”

“Like hell I do. You don’t really care about disturbing Argon. You just want Argon to stay depressed because if he wasn’t he might try to stop you from doing whatever the hell you want all the time. You haven’t contributed anything to this place since you were built other than forcing me to do your job for you and terrorizing the travelers just to fuel your own ego!” Krypton shouted. Radon’s ignorant comment had triggered decades worth of built up stress and resentment to burst out of her in just a few sentences. For a few moments she felt a cathartic satisfaction, but that quickly dissolved when Radon began to flare up in anger.

“Shut up!” He shouted, smashing his fist into the wall directly above her head in fury, fragments of steel raining down upon the both of them. “You don’t know anything! You think just because Argon made you first you’re better than everyone? Shut up! Nobody cares what you think, just leave us alone and go back to your stupid office and do whatever the hell it is you do all day!”

The two locked eyes for a second, neither one willing to step down. In that moment Krypton knew she could scream anything she wanted back at him, that he was a terrible leader, that his work was meaningless, that he was just an overpowered ignorant bully, but Radon would never listen. 

Her face screen burned in rage as she brushed the steel debris off her shoulders and turned back towards her office.

Before now Krypton accepted this position as her lot in life, but this was the final straw. If nobody else in her family cared about Telhub running, why should she? The universe probably wouldn’t collapse in on itself if she took matters into her own hands, even if it meant putting work aside for the first time. She damn well had earned it by now. 

Krypton locked the office door behind her and sat down at her computer, ready to find her coworkers by any means necessary.


End file.
